We are
going to wrap up this discussion on monitors by talking about the nature of
sound and how it affects the monitor mix.
Ambient sound is very different from the sound that comes out of a
speaker. There is not enough time or
space on this post to discuss all of the reasons for this, but I will try to
touch on the main points. I will also
try to describe things in a less technical, more down to earth manner.
All
sound is produced by vibration. Try to
picture a grand piano in your mind.
Think about the sound board, what it looks like and how it vibrates. Think about what the piano sounds like from
the perspective of the player, standing next to it (in front of the opening) or
standing several feet away. The
complexity and variety of just this one ambient sound example is amazing.
Now
think about a stereo pair of microphones picking up this sound from a specific
location. All of the other vantage
points are lost, and the complexity of the ambient sound is reduced. The sound is transformed into electrical impulses
which travel through wires and sound equipment.
Finally these electrical impulses cause a pair of speakers to vibrate in
an attempt to recreate the sound. The
size and shape of the speaker cones are very different from the sound board of
the piano. The directionality of the
speaker sound signal is also much more focused when compared to the wide
dispersion pattern of the piano sound board.
This
one example of electronic sound recreation paints a pretty good picture of the
differences between ambient and speaker generated sound. Classical musicians are purists when it comes
to this topic. If you attend a classical
concert in a true concert hall, no (or hardly any) microphones and speakers are
used for amplification. If you do see
microphones, they are probably being used for recording. The hall is designed to naturally amplify the
sound presented from the stage and apply a beautiful ambient reverb. The musicians hear themselves and each other
through ambient sound only. The
"monitor mix" (if we can call it that) is manipulated by the positioning
of the musicians on the stage.
Unfortunately,
not all music is capable of achieving this natural balance. A single acoustic guitar in a club or stadium
will never be able to compete with a drum set and the other instruments in the
band. Electric guitars and bass guitars
are not even designed to produce much ambient sound. The tone is created through electronic
signals received through pickups and then transmitted through amplifiers. To achieve balance, performers with these
elements and environments need to use sound systems to provide the proper
amplification and balance of sound.
Although
speaker vibration can never exactly replicate ambient sound, separation helps
with intelligibility. Separating a sound
source across a wide array of speakers (like surround sound) helps to achieve
some of the space found in ambient sound.
However, monitor mixes are
usually transmitted in mono through one speaker per performer (or group of
similar performers). Can you imagine how
many speakers it would take to provide separate surround sound mixes for every
performer? The more sound signals you
try to cram into one mono speaker (or a pair of stereo ear buds), the more
cramped, muddy and unintelligible everything gets.
The degradation
of sound quality from conversion to and from electronic impulses combined with
the sound dispersion nature of speakers are the two main causes of monitor mix
issues. When we add lack of separation
to the equation, monitor mixes become balancing acts of what will fit and what
we can afford to lose or turn down. This
reality is the reason for everything that I wrote in part one and two of this
series on monitors.
No comments:
Post a Comment